Earlier today, in bipartisan fashion, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to approve the New START treaty, sending it to the Senate floor where it needs 67 votes for ratification. But it’s not time to celebrate yet! Clearing committee is a big step in the right direction, but the tight Senate schedule means that unless Senators from both parties publicly call for an up-or-down vote on this treaty, it may not be ratified this year.

With strong bipartisan support, the time to ratify the New START treaty is now:

The treaty makes us safer — it will reduce the number of deployed nuclear weapons in U.S. and Russian arsenals.

The treaty allows U.S. inspectors to monitor Russian nukes. By the time the committee voted today, it’s been 285 days without on-site inspections of Russian nuclear weapons and facilities.

The treaty has the overwhelming support of the military and national security experts of both parties, including current and former commanders of our nuclear weapons, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, and many others.

The treaty is a symbol of peace and the common good, and has the support of religious groups from across the spectrum, including the World Evangelical Alliance, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Please take time today to call your Senators and let them know the New START treaty is out of committee with Republican and Democratic support, and they need to join this bipartisan consensus. It will take only five minutes — simply visit the Two Futures Project START Action Center, find the Office Number for your Senators, and ask them to publically call for a vote to ratify the New START treaty this year.

Nukes in the News

Jonathan Merritt and civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery, “Living Together as Brothers in a World with Nuclear Weapons” http://huff.to/9Vc44g

New York Times editorial on New START: “Failure to ratify this treaty would be hugely costly for American credibility and security.” http://nyti.ms/bMTtae

George Shultz, Madeleine Albright, Gary Hart and Chuck Hagel have a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post, “It’s time for the Senate to vote on New START” – http://bit.ly/bTbom6